Early one Mourning
by MegGenScull
Summary: Todd didn't want to go to the Summer Camp, he didn't want to 'make friends' and 'branch out' and 'reconnect'. But Ben had signed him up to go, and after everything, after all that they'd been through, he couldn't say no. Rating may change. Summer Camp AU, Noise!Less, Modern Day


**Hey guys, so I wrote this from a prompt on Tumblr and I really liked how it turned out, so I decided to post it on here. For the lulz. I started using that ironically and now look what's happened. Sigh.**

**Anyway, enjoy!**

**Still not sure if I want to continue after this chapter, so give me a heads up if you would prefer I continue ok yay**

**Megan out**

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Todd scuffed his shoe into the ground, carefully watching as the rubber dug into the gravel. All the other kids were gathering around him, hugging friends they'd made the year before, laughing like idiots and prancing around like small children. Ignoring him, of course.

Ben stood beside him, still there after many of the other parents had dropped and run. "You ok, Todd?"

"Huh? Yeah, fine."

Despite how much he was screaming to run away from here, and he was already looking forward to the weekend in a fortnights time where he'd be home, he had to choke it down and smile at Ben. Ben had gotten him into the camp, after all. It was supposed to be a good camp, full of gifted kids and holding-hands-around-the-campfire-esque activities.

And Todd knew that Ben needed some time alone to sort everything out, after Cillian, after everything that had happened in the past three months.

Todd stumbled forward as something large and heavy hit past his shoulder, a low voice accompanying it; a tall boy with the whispers of a mustache, who barged through, only sparing Todd a snide grin before running up to his group of friends.

"So sorry about Davy," the Camp Leader said, who asked everyone to call him Camp Leader Prentiss. "He's growing through quite a difficult phase."

"S'fine," Todd said, coughing awkwardly.

"Are you off, soon?" Ben asked, trying to hold conversation.

"We're waiting for two more campers," Prentiss said, smiling politely. "But we should have Todd out of your hair soon after that."

The two arrived, a girl with short, dark hair and a boy who seemed a constant hive of activity and the campers were lead onto the bus.

"I'll be seeing you, Todd Hewitt," Ben said, smiling and hugging Todd in goodbye.

"See ya, Pa," Todd replied, his voice muffled and the emotion lost in Ben's jacket.

Todd was followed by hushed voices as he made his way down the bus. He could see Davy, the boy who'd charged past him, watching with small, piggy eyes, and Todd knew, with an internal groan, that he would have to deal with him for the rest of the two weeks.

The boy who'd arrived late was sitting by himself, his fingers flicking over a gameboy. Todd glanced ahead and saw all the other seats from where he was to Davy and his group of friends taken, so he stood by the boy's seat for a second.

"Uh, sorry," Todd said, glancing at the boy. "You usin' this seat?"

The boy looked up and grinned. "Nope. Nope. All yours. Hey, I'm Manchee. Manchee uh, Manchee. Yeah. You?"

Todd sided in, already inwardly cursing. He really wasn't in the mood with putting up with all that energy. "Todd."

"Todd, Todd," Manchee repeated, as if tasting the name. "Neat name. After anyone? Or no one? Or someone?" He gave a bark of laughter, as if what he'd asked was the funniest thing Todd would ever have the honour of hearing.

"I dunno."

"Oh," Manchee said, finally seeming to take the hint that Todd wasn't in the mood for a full frontal conversation about his family tree and all the Todd's that might be in it. "Cool."

He switched back to his video game and his fingers danced over the controls. Todd leaned his head back and stared at the ceiling, closing his eyes and trying his hardest to pass the two hours to the campsite as quickly as possible.

Todd had been on dishes duty, forced into awkward conversation with some guy named Lee and a friendly girl named Maddy. And so he walked back to the cabin he shared with Manchee, and on the way, he heard this awful crying, deep, deadened sobs.

Todd paused and looked around, a hundred different things running through his mind. It was dark and he needed to be back, but he couldn't leave her, yes, he could hear the weeping clearer now, and it was definitely a girl.

Todd sighed, ran his hand through his hair and walked towards where he heard it. He followed the noise around to behind the toilets, where he saw a girl with short dark hair, hands pressed to her face, toes clenched in her shoes, tears licking through her hands.

"'Lo?" He asked awkwardly. "You alright?"

The girl started and jumped up, smearing the tears along her cheeks as she tried to clear them away. "Fine." Her voice shook and broke and her eyes welled with tears.

Todd frowned. "I ain't much an expert on fine, but you don't look it. You wanna…talk?"

The girl swallowed and hesitantly shook her head. "It's just…I want to go. Away."

"Home?"

The girl's face dropped further and a tear snaked from her eye. "No. Not home. Never home."

"Then where?"

"I want to go and wash my face, and then I want to go to bed, and then i want to wake up tomorrow morning and for it to be six months ago."

"That ain't a place," Todd said, before he could help himself. That was his biggest issue, and he inwardly cursed as the girls face jumped in surprise at his somewhat weird answer. He always said what he thought, before he could go over it and think over whether it was a reasonable thing to say or not.

But then she gave a hesitant smile. "I'm Viola. Viola Eade."

"Todd, Hewitt," Todd said, and he stuck his hand out, and they shook hands. "Ed? Weird last name."

Viola frowned. "No, Eade. E-A-D-E."

"Like eave 'cept with a D stead of a V."

Viola did the half-smile again. "Sure."

Todd felt like he needed her to smile, that her smiling would be so beautiful that everything would be good and everything would be better. That the cloud of angst and anger hanging over him since the Doctors called Ben at 3:00 that dreary early spring morning, and told them that Cillian had stopped fighting might learn to finally dissipate.

"You want me to wait to walk you back?" Todd asked her as she made her way through the door into the Girls Bathroom.

"No. thank you, though." She said, smiling again, this time it more polite, more forced. But still there, _still there_.

"I'll be seeing you, Viola Eade."

"Don't be a stranger, Todd Hewitt."

Todd sat next to Manchee the next morning at the Mess Hall. Davy and his friends were sitting at the table over, whispering and glancing in their direction. Manchee was happily chatting away, assumedly unaware that Todd hadn't been paying attention to a single word he'd said.

Todd kept glancing over to where Viola was sitting, talking and listening with Maddy, her dark hair pulled back into a short pony-tail.

"Whatcha lookin' at?" Manchee asked, glancing towards Viola as Todd did.

"Nothin'."

"Oh yeah, sure," Manchee said, grinning. "Sure, sure, sure. You keep your secrets, Todd Hewitt. Keep them. Keep them forever."

Todd was pretty sure that Manchee repeated himself so often that he must have very little time to do anything _but _speak.

"Right. Will do."

"Hey, hey," Manchee said, nudging Todd as he was trying to spread jam over his toast. "You see that girl? The pretty one? The one with the short hair, in a ponytail? Ponytail-Pretty-Girl?"

"Oh, uh, yeah," Todd said, reddening slightly and glancing, unsubtle, towards Viola.

"I heard from Acorn and he heard from Hammer, who heard from Aaron," Manchee said, taking a bite out of his promite toast. "He said that her parents are dead. Dead, dead, dead from a car accident."

Todd's stomach dropped and he looked at his hands, scared that if he looked up, she'd catch his eye, and she'd know that he'd know.

"What business does Aaron have spreadin' things like that?" Todd hissed.

"That's what Acorn said," Manchee nodded seriously, taking another bite. "Said it was an imbalance of trust or somethin'. We're friends, Acorn and me, dontcha know."

"Then why don't you go sit with him?"

Manchee barked a stab of laughter that only made Todd frown. "Because you're more my friend-friend, you know? And Acorn's like my buddy-friend. Like my pal-friend, you know?"

No.

"Sure," Todd said.

He glanced over and Manchee nodded at one of the Camp Leaders, who had scars running down his cheek, his mouth stuffed with toast. "Das 'im, A'ron."

Aaron looked across the room, met Todd's eyes and Todd looked away.

He'd met him before, he knew who he was. That man was the worst thing that had ever happened to Todd, cruel and malicious. But he hadn't been Aaron then.

A fire, anger, heat, burned inside of him. He'd told everyone about Viola, when it was clear it was something she didn't want to talk about. He had grinned, like it was all some big joke.

The fire only intensified and Todd cut his toast in half, blatantly ignoring Manchee for the rest of the breakfast.

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**Thanks for reading! Please review if you have some time :)**

**-Megan x**


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